You know that feeling on a clear blue sky day. The air is crisp, the sun is shining. Everything seems right in the world.

Well, on the Web – it isn’t one of those days. And we haven’t had one in a while.

We wake each day to a thick, grey, low-hanging cloud of ‘Data Smog’. It obscures our vision, it darkens the digital sky, and it makes everything we could and should do with the new web-connected world harder.

What is Data Smog, and how can we cure it?

Data Smog is a pervasive volume of non-useful information that increasingly hangs over our social networks, communication technology and connected devices. It is the by-product (the ‘exhaust’) that streams unabated out of unfiltered check-ins, comments, mobile photo upload and relentless spam. We participate in creating Data Smog in a number of ways…by adding a string of often unnecessary CC:’s to our emails, and by allowing companies to require our email address, mobile phone numbers, mother’s maiden name and other data that in turn becomes targeted marketing opportunities.

Will it ever get better?

To answer this, you first need to think about this history of Smog in our urban centers.

1943: Smog is first documented in Los Angeles, though the actual culprit (cars) remains a mystery for a few years.

1952: 4,000 deaths were reported in London, where a “killer smog” enveloped the city.

1953: In New York, more than 200 died after a smog cloud covered the city.

1955: Congress enacted the National Air Pollution Control Act to generate research on air pollution.

Leaded gas started being phased out in the late 60′s. In 1975, Congress made catalytic converters mandatory in new vehicles, a move that signaled the end of leaded gasoline.

1984: The California Smog Check program goes into effect to identify vehicles in need of maintenance and to assure the effectiveness of their emissions-control systems.

1996 Big Seven automakers commit to making zero-emissions vehicles, and General Motors rolls out the EV-1.

2000: There were no Stage One smog alerts that year, compared with 42 days in 1990.

So, look at what happened. First, there was a phenomenon – smog. Then, there were some horrible deaths. Then there was an eventual understanding of what caused it. Both gasoline fumes released from pumps and burning of leaded gas. Then, laws were enacted. Now the air is cleaner.

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